Vaseline, Hippos, and Uranium.

vivala

“Cause there’s a million things to be.  You know that there are.” – Cat Stevens

It is true.  There’s a million ways to be.  We certainly know that to be true.

And right now, when the world seems a little sideways, it may be more important to realize that very simple line.  There’s a million things to be.  One of those possibilities?  To do good.

Oh, the news on the planet can be bleak.  As can the reactions of those around us.   There seems to be a lot of talk about hatred, uncertainty, and violence.  Intolerance. Indifference.  Indignation.

But there truly is so much good here too.  Now and throughout history.  And there will be more to come.

It could be simple good.

Like  what about Robert Chesebrough.  That dude noticed some gunk called ‘rod wax’ collecting on oil rigs.  Good old Bob realized it could act as a lubricant.  So he scooped it up and made it “Vaseline.”  And. He ate a spoonful daily.  Regularly.   Thank goodness for Mr. Chesebrough.  What would the world be without Vaseline?  Better by the spoonful, apparently.

Or how about Marie Curie.  Sure, we know her for her awesome scientific mind. Radioactively.  But she put the goofy-gams on life too.  Clever prankster, she was.  On time , she flipped a friend’s room  entirely upside down… by nailing the bed, table, and shoes to the ceiling.  Crazy girl.  Make ‘em laugh.

Or… make ‘em smile.  Take John Greenwood.  Yep.  George Washington’s dentist.  He was clever too.  He made the president four sets of dentures.  None of wood.  Doh!  He made them of hippopotamus ivory and gold wire.  Don’t ask me where he got the hippo teeth.  Holy smokes.    But George W. loved the guy.  So much in fact, when Washington’s last tooth fell out, he gave it to Greenwood.

So you see, you can be anything you want to be.  And it can be good.

And, call it what you want, but one of those million ways… is a “call to be working for good.”  And I think we are all wanting that… more than anything.  For Good To Prevail.  And Peace.

Make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

 

“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
― Fred Rogers

 

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
― Albert Einstein